According
to contemporary trade journals, almost 60,000 works of fiction
(both adult and juvenile) were published during the Victorian
period. The 238 mid- to late-nineteenth-century novelists
listed in the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature,
vol. 4 1800-1900 (3rd. ed., 1999) represent the most
enduring of approximately 7,000 authors identified by John
Sutherland (The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction,
1988) as entitled to call themselves 'novelist'. From the
society novels of the 1830s, to 'industrial' novels reflecting
the desperate lives of the poor, historical and domestic novels,
tales of adventure, the emerging detective stories of the
1860s, the sensational novel and science fiction, they were
responsible for an astonishing range of literature.

This activity
was fostered by an increasingly skilful and professional publishing
system. Most Victorian novels were published in three volumes
at 31s. 6d, or 10s. 6d per volume. Although too expensive
for the average purchaser, this price enabled the publisher
to cover his costs on a comparatively small edition (usually
1,000 copies), and allowed for a reasonable payment to the
author. The majority of readers, who could not afford to buy
new novels, flocked to the circulating libraries which sprang
up all over the country. Led by Charles Mudie's establishment
in New Oxford Street, these controlled a significant share
of the market in new novels, keeping a censorious eye on the
moral and religious content of their stock.

At the
same time, authors and publishers were anxious to increase
their sales by reducing the price of new fiction. The unexpected
success of Dickens's Pickwick Papers in 1836-7 revitalised
the old practice of publishing in shilling monthly numbers.
Serialisation in periodicals (and, to a lesser extent, newspapers)
was also popular, especially from the 1860s with the founding
of important literary journals like the Cornhill Magazine,
Belgravia, and The Argosy. In both cases,
famous artists of the day were often commissioned to provide
high quality illustrations, which were an additional inducement
to purchase. With increased sales came the prospect of improved
payments for at least some authors, which in turn contributed
to the professionalisation of authorship during the century.

Once a
serial had been completed, and the novel had exhausted its
original market in three volumes, it might be reprinted in
a cheaper (usually 6 shilling) one-volume edition, and then
again as a yellowback in one of the popular Railway Libraries.
As the century progressed, the intervals between these editions
tended to contract, and by the 1880s the 6 shilling novel
was beginning to emerge as the preferred form for new fiction.
Faced with the growth of free libraries, and increasingly
vociferous complaints from authors about censorship of their
work, the circulating libraries finally took matters into
their own hands. In 1894 they announced that they would pay
no more than 4 shillings a volume for fiction - in effect
signalling the death of the 'three-decker'.